


C is for... Cypress!

by adoritotree (AlgaLenn), NightWing18



Series: Decypher - A Superhero AU [3]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: (just 8 years), (they are both over 20), Adult Dipper Pines, Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Barista Dipper Pines, First Meetings, Flirting, Human Bill Cipher, M/M, Older Dipper Pines, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 11:25:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17745047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlgaLenn/pseuds/adoritotree, https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightWing18/pseuds/NightWing18
Summary: Bill and Dipper finally meet out of costume.





	C is for... Cypress!

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY IT'S HERE. It took me a lot longer to get this done than I thought it would because I've been busy as hell. Me and Night had a real good time writing it, so I hope you enjoy it as much as we did ^_^

"-so that's the weather for the rest of the week, back to you, Dana,"  the weather reporter said and in the TV they were once again showing the main news' studio, everyone's favorite host prepared to give the latest story to the residents of the city. 

The Mystery Coffee (& Deli) was quiet, despite the fact that it was rather packed with people having their usual morning coffee. Everyone seemed to be pretty enraptured by the TV screen. They knew what was coming and where eager to hear about it.

"Thanks, Sam. Well, in other news, as most of you might already know, Cypher once again showed up to wreak havoc in the area. This time his target was the mall.”  

Things had changed in the last couple of months. Now everyone loved hearing Cypher’s name on the news, but only because it meant they would get to hear about their favorite superhero as well.

 “His behavior was rather odd this time, it seems he didn't really have a clear plan, in reality, it all looked more like an attempt to taunt our beloved savior, Pine Tree,” Dana continued as clips from the fight played on the side of the screen. “The fight, luckily, didn't have any casualties, unless you count the statue the Mayor inaugurated last week. Adam Terry is on the site and he was part of the crowd last night so he has a pretty good idea of what happened. Adam."

The news went to Adam, holding his microphone outside of the mall. The remains of what seemed to be a giant fish statue were scattered all over the floor around him. "It was so weird, Dana, it really seemed like Cipher had no plan at all, no motive. He just showed up out of nowhere and rounded everyone in this small area, keeping us there with his powers," Adam explained and then went on about what had happened, giving as many details as he remembered. Of course, Pine Tree had shown up and saved everyone, as usual, and then Cipher had managed to escape before he could be arrested, also as usual.

Bill entered the coffee shop, glanced for a brief second at the TV and rolled his eyes before walking up the counter. The other two patrons didn’t turn their heads at the sound of the door, didn’t even bat an eyelash, just continued watching the news.

The blond man was a mess. He had bags under his eyes, he obviously hadn't brushed his usually luscious locks of hair, he hadn’t bothered to iron his button-down, hadn’t bothered to tuck it into his pants either... Anyone would be able to tell he had had a rough night. 

"I don't know what to think, maybe our local supervillain has finally gone mad... or well, madder than he already was... Can you believe it, Dana?" The news went back to the studio and Bill glanced at the TV once again as he waited for whoever ran the coffee shop to appear.

"Maybe that's the case... Maybe we're lucky and he has finally given up... Or at least that's what the police is saying, given they haven't been able to find any of his uncrackable codes to far, which might mean he does not plan to strike again," the host speculated.

Bill clenched his jaw.

"Only time will tell..." There was a short pause and Dana was smiling again. "On a related note the whole city is preparing for the Winter Festival! This time the mayor has decided to honor our new hero in it and-"

Bill looked away and blocked the TV from his mind, as well as everyone else's thoughts. Of course all the people at the coffee shop couldn't stop replaying his last failure in their heads... He was glad he had learned to control his power or else he would truly be going mad.

“Does anyone work at this damn place or what?” The blond asked, though not loud enough that someone that hadn’t been standing next to him would have heard it. 

Why had he even decided to come here? Why had he thought it would be a good idea to leave the comfort of his home? Oh, right, he had needed air, a place to clear his mind… Well, this definitely wasn’t the best place to do just that.

Just when Bill was about to turn around and head back to his place, a brunet man that looked pretty much like him in terms of how much rest he had gotten, walked out of the back of the shop and took his place behind the counter.

"Hi. What can I get you?" He asked, putting a rather bad ‘customer service smile’.

Bill raised an eyebrow when he looked up to the other. Well, it seemed like he hadn’t been the one with a rough night... Well, he was glad about that, he certainly hated that lately he seemed to be the only one miserable in this damned city, 

“Huh... I have no idea what I want actually-” again, coming here had been a last minute decision- “just... what do you recommend?”  Also, he had been too caught up in the news and his last defeat. He hated that, not being able to just forget about it.

The barista hummed a little, reaching out for a cup and flipping it over. “How sweet do you like your coffee?” He counted with a little smile, flipping the large cup in his hand a couple times.

The blond leaned against the counter and smiled a little. “Not too sweet, but not too bitter either,” he told the barista and smiled. 

The other was... interesting in a way, he was curious to figure out what had happened to him that he looked in a state so similar to his own. Bill let himself use his power again but this time focused on the other, his stare becoming quite intense as he did so. It would have made anyone  uncomfortable.

“Hmmm... Alright then,” he said, turning his back to the man to get to work.

Bill no longer paid real attention to him, too concentrated on getting into his mind. It was odd, he never had to put that much effort in that, if anything he had to make an effort not to do it. What was it about this guy? And oh god, was he talking?

“Sir?”

Bill blinked a couple of times and chuckled.

“Sorry, I was daydreaming,” he  apologized and rubbed his eyes. “What were you saying?”

“I was wondering if you had any allergies,” the brunet said and let out a shy laugh. At least he didn’t seem bothered by Bill’s antics, that was always a plus.

“Oh, no, no allergies,” he reassured him and then tried to go back to reading the other’s mind but... still nothing, it wasn’t even blank, it was... like there was a wall around it and he couldn’t get past it, sort of similar to when he tried to read Pine Tree’s, but not quite, this was... natural, unlike Pine Tree’s method, Bill could tell.

“Awesome.” He grinned and turned back to what he was doing.

Bill watched him as he pumped a couple of things into the cup of coffee, adding the last touches to it. He wondered what it would taste like, it obviously wouldn’t be your average black coffee. The blond didn’t mind though, he welcomed things that were different, that made his life a little bit more… Exciting.

Just a moment later, the barista was popping the lid on to hand it over and ring it up. 

“Let me know what you think. If you don’t like it I can try again,” He said, one hand hovering over the cash register.

“Thanks...” Bill said as he took the cup. He loved the look of excitement mixed with clear nervousness in the other’s face, he looked adorable.

The blond took a sip and hummed. It was good, not what he usually had... but definitely something he could have more often. 

The place was nice too, he had never been to this coffee shop... He had been so tired of everything that his head had been screaming for something new and had ended up leading him there. 

“It’s good, really good,” he said and smiled. “Hey, may I ask you a question, kid?” He asked after another sip.

Oh, and the barista’s face lit up at that… Yeah, he would have to come back just to see the other’s adorable’s face again.

The kid finally rang up the coffee and he nodded. “Sure, go ahead,” he hummed, scribbling something down on a sheet of paper and waiting for Bill to pay.

"I was wondering what you were thinking," the blond simply said as he took his wallet out of his pocket and pulled the money for the coffee, as well as a rather generous tip. He deserved it, the guy had managed to make his day a little bit better already and it did help that so far he was a complete mystery for Bill. "Oh, and what's your name?"

“I was thinking that...” he paused, humming a little, “that I’m glad you liked the new drink I just made up, and that maybe I should add it to the menu. I was also wondering what your name was,” he added with a grin, holding out a hand over the counter. “Dipper. Dipper Pines. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh definitely add it to the menu, it’ll give me an excuse to come and see you more often,” Bill said and took the other’s hand, giving it a firm shake. “Bill C.”

There was a brief pause.

Bill rarely interacted with people that didn’t know him as Mr. Strange’s brother, so he rarely had to give his name, the letter was enough for most, but he knew that with this guy it would just seem odd, so he had to give a complete answer. It was a shame he couldn’t use Cipher, not if he wanted to keep his identity a secret. 

“C is for Cypress,” he clarified and let go of the other’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Pines.”

Dipper laughed, shaking his head a little. “Nice to meet you too and, don’t worry, I’d make it for you even if I didn’t add it to the menu,” he hummed, tipping his head a little.  “So what brings you here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around before.”

Bill shrugged. “I live close by but I tend to keep to myself, having breakfast at home saves me some money and human interaction. I do it more for the human interaction though,” Bill confessed and took another sip of his coffee.

It wasn’t that Bill didn’t enjoy to be around people, if there was something he loved was a good party with thousands of guests, but there were times for that and the morning certainly wasn’t a time of the day he would like to spend actively trying to keep most people’s thoughts away from his head. So he tended to avoid crowds before his morning coffee.

“Today I just... I guess I needed some fresh air,” the blond added and then glanced back at the TV and rolled his eyes when he noticed they were still talking about Pine Tree. 

"That's a good reason," the barista agreed.

“What’s with everyone’s obsessions in this city?”Bill commented, almost over Dipper’s own words. “First they couldn’t stop talking about Cipher-“ though that had been nice... “Now this guy.”

"Sometimes a change is good, it helps." He paused.  "I don't know. Guess just because it's pretty quiet, so. Gotta cling to the weird."

“Oh I’m all about clinging to the weird, dear, but this...” Bill glanced back at Dipper and sighed. “I think it’s just a little too much, everyone everywhere only talks about him, people in this city need to get a life,” he said and rolled his eyes, then drank more of his coffee. “No offense if you’re one of them.”

“I think.... I think it’s understandable, to want to talk about a hero,” he said slowly.

His hesitance started to worry Bill, he didn’t want the only person in this city that could be interesting to him _for real_ to be just another obsessed tool that- 

“But I think he gets too much attention. Just because he’s different. If I didn’t know that this was going to be on every channel after yesterday I’d turn it off.”

Bill gave a mental sigh of relief. Maybe there was still hope for this guy. He liked the kid more with every passing second... he was interesting and the fact that he couldn’t know for sure what he was like was... refreshing. Maybe for once, he could allow himself to pretend not everyone in the world was fake. 

“It’s never too late to change the channel I guess?” Bill suggested and raised an eyebrow.

Dipper was grinning brightly. A good sign, he had to be enjoying this just as much as Bill was.

“I would. But the customers will get upset and besides- the news takes over every channel when they report on Cypher and Pine Tree. Also- that’s a dumb name. Pine Tree? Come on. Ridiculous,” he laughed.

Bill chuckled a little. “Actually, I’m kinda fond of it… it’s hilarious, don’t you think?” 

He wouldn’t lie about simple stuff like that, he refused to be another fake person out there. Sure he wouldn’t be telling the world about who he really was, but he would stand his ground when it came to what he believed... for the most part. And he still thought he had been quite clever when coming up with that name for the hero, it was hilarious that it had stuck with the media. 

Dipper shrugged a little. “I mean... I guess. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“If there’s one thing I’d like to know about that guy is why he chose that name.” Of course, he already knew, but nobody else did.

The barista hummed. “Yeah. I’d like to know, too,” he agreed, but the blond could tell he didn’t seem particularly interested. That was fine.

Bill finally sat down in one of the chairs next to the counter. He hadn’t been planning to stay, just get the coffee and go, but that had clearly changed. “I will admit something and then we should change the topic so that we’re not like everyone else…” 

Dipper picked a rag and started to clean the counter.

Bill wiggled his eyebrows a little. “They both seem pretty hot, don’t you think?” 

He couldn’t help it, he loved to feed his ego.

Pausing, Dipper coughed a little, glancing up at the clip they were playing again. “.. yeah. Alright. I can admit that. But you’re right, enough about them. Tell me about you.”

Bill grinned and leaned a little against the counter. He was definitely up for that. It was good to know he wasn’t the only one interested in the other. 

“And what exactly would you like to know, kid?” He asked before taking another long sip of his coffee, already making assumptions about what the other could ask, the kind of replies he could give... geez it was stressful already! Usually he could just know and prepare an answer accordingly but with Dipper? Damn... he liked the feeling, it was like the thrill of getting caught.

“Anything you’d want to tell me,” he countered, grinning and leaning against the counter. “Where you’re from, what you’re doing here in town, anything...”

The other paused and Bill watched him intently. Allowing him a moment to see if the other would continue, since it seemed like he was mulling over something.

“I’m not from around here either. I originally came for college, and I stayed around after that,” Dipper finally explained, smiling a little. 

"After?" Bill raised an eyebrow. Dipper looked pretty young... Then again looks could be deceiving. "How old are you, dear?"

“21,” he answered with a little shrug. 

Bill huffed a laugh. Yeah, pretty young, but still interesting, he had a look in his eyes... and the way he held himself told Bill the guy was a lot more mature than people Bill's age, or that he at least had been through a lot. Like him.

Yet another reason to like him.

“Why, how old are  _ you? _ ” Dipper asked in return.

"29.” Bill replied without hesitation, then added: “I know I don't look the part... I hope that's not a problem?" He asked, smiling a little, almost shy, as shy as Bill Cipher could ever be.

“No. No problems here,” the younger man said and gave him a friendly smile.

The blond grinned. "Great, I'm enjoying our conversation so far and I'd hate to think it might be our last," he confessed and glanced at the TV again, this time just to check what time it was. Only 9 AM... he had time. 

“Yeah, that would suck, wouldn’t it?” The barista agreed.

Bill looked back at Dipper. "So, you're a 21 year-old, out of college, working at a coffee shop all on your own, you have power over the menu... How did a guy your age get to own this place?" He assumed that was what was going on there.

“Oh, well. Technically I don’t own it,” he explained. “Technically my great-uncle owns it. He wanted to open a coffee-shop based on the Mystery Shack he has, and since my sister and I were coming here for school anyway, we were put in charge.”

Bill was already taking mental notes. Sister, great-uncle, a family, of course. Most people had one. Sometimes it was easy to forget that, given he hadn't had one in a long time. 

"That's nice, I assume you live in the apartments upstairs?” He wondered, looking up at the ceiling.

He had noticed the construction on top of the coffee shop and if the place was owned by a family member it would only make sense they would let him and his sister live in it.

“It's great to have someone that takes care of you like that, must be really nice." Bill added once he had lowered his gaze.

"Yeah, we do," Dipper hummed, nodding a little and fiddling with his cloth again. "And yeah it is... a bit. But here it’s only me and my sister so it's pretty lonely sometimes…” Dipper paused for a moment and Bill noticed his eyes seemed far off, but soon the barista was shaking his head and smiling again. “But other than that I like it."

“Hey, it doesn’t have to be lonely though, right?” Bill smiled a little and then finally finished his coffee. He had to go, there were a lot of things he needed to do... damn he didn’t want to.

“I’m not... good at making friends? So it’s pretty lonely,” Dipper let out a nervous chuckle.

Bill laughed as well and took a paper napkin from the counter, then grabbed one of the pens Dipper had on his side. “Well, we have that in common...” He wrote down his number on the napkin and handed it to the other. “But maybe we can change that?” He asked and jumped down from the seat.

Bill didn’t have real friends. Sure, there were those that worked with him as Cypher and those around his brother that always tried to stay on his good side and those that tried to get close to him just to get close to Thad… But no, no real friends, no opportunities for real relationships.

It was one of the many problems of being able to read people’s minds, Bill  _ knew _ how terrible people could be, how interest-driven, how fake… Sometimes he was like that too, but he certainly didn’t pretend he was friends with anyone, he made sure those around him knew they had a business relationship.

He hoped that with Dipper he would get the chance to have something different for once… Even if there was the risk of living in ignorance.

Bill watched with his heart in his throat as Dipper paused… and then smiled faintly and took the napkin. 

The blond relaxed visibly.

Dipper pulled out his cell from his back pocket. “Yeah. Maybe we can,” he agreed, typing in the number and shooting a ‘hello!’ message to Bill.

Bill’s phone rang in his pocket and the blond smiled. “Well, I have to go, but I look forward to seeing you again, dear,” he told the other and offered him his hand again, which Dipper immediately shook, with a bright smile on his face.

“I’ll see you soon, Bill.”

Bill waved Dipper goodbye and walked out of the coffee shop. 

He was looking forward to seeing the other again... And the great news was that the other had definitely helped him feel better! Now he was in the perfect mood to work on his next plan. Pine Tree wouldn’t know what hit him.

**Author's Note:**

> Bring in the comments!


End file.
